Thank you, Mark. Thank you for your ministry today. Would you take your Bible and turn to Galatians chapter 3 as we look at a text this evening, which will be our jumping off point in getting into the message, God is late in my heart. Galatians chapter 3. We're going to read verses 6 through 9. I want to talk tonight about faith that gets results. Probably two of the key words that we hear and which we use over and over again are the words believe and faith.
But however commonly they are used, I fear that too often they are little considered. And yet no truth is more significant, more key, more central to the Christian life than that of faith. Dr. Charles Pfeiffer called it the guiding principle of the Christian life. You will see those words used in the text I'm going to read. Even so Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham.
And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, All the nations shall be blessed in you. So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham the believer. To understand faith a little bit better, and particularly the theme that we're thinking about tonight, faith that gets results, I'd like for us to consider Abraham as he is mentioned in the epistles of the New Testament.
For Abraham possessed a dynamic faith that did not fail, but rather that got results. And I believe that by looking at his example and noting the three secrets that Abraham knew regarding faith, that we can experience the same kind of dynamic faith. The first secret that I see regarding Abraham's faith is that his faith rested upon God. That doesn't seem very profound, does it? And yet in its essence it really is.
Turn with me back to Romans chapter 4, and let's review a passage that we have looked at in some detail a while back. Romans chapter 4, beginning in verse 16.
For this reason, it is by faith, that is, justification is by faith, that it might be in accordance with grace, in order that the promise may be certain to all the descendants, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is father of us all, as it is written, the father of many nations I have made you, in the sight of him whom he believed, even God, who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist.
In hope, against hope, he believed. In order that he might become a father of many nations according to that which had been spoken, so shall your descendants be. And without becoming weak in faith, he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead, since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah's womb. In other words, God had given Abraham a promise, and the promise is in essence what is said in verse 18, so shall your descendants be.
God had promised to Abraham a seed, a son, through whom the blessing would come. That was God's word to him. And yet Abraham considered his circumstances. He was almost a hundred years old. His wife was barren. It was humanly impossible that they could have a child. That was the set of circumstances Abraham contemplated.
But verse 20 goes on, yet with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief, but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what he had promised, he was able also to perform. And of course, God did. We see here the truth that Abraham's faith rested upon God. The secret to faith is not its possession, but its position. The secret to faith is that upon what faith is fixed. For you see, everyone exercises a kind of faith.
Every day, every person expresses a kind of faith. Sometimes that faith is in self, what one is able to do himself. Sometimes that faith is in money, what he can buy. Sometimes that faith is in religion or the church. Sometimes the faith is in the corporation. But every day, everyone exercises a certain kind of faith. But faith is only as valid as its object. Faith is no more good than the object in which it is placed.
I can sincerely believe that a certain thing will happen, but that faith is only as valid as the object of my faith. I think we have an example of this back in the book of Isaiah, if you would turn back there with me, as Isaiah gives a satirical denunciation of idolatry. Isaiah chapter 44. In verse 9, the prophet says, Those who fashion a graven image are all of them futile, and their precious things are of no profit.
Even their own witnesses fail to see or know, so that they will be put to shame. Who is fashioned a god or cast an idol to no profit? Behold, all his companions will be put to shame, for the craftsmen themselves are mere men. Let them all assemble themselves, let them stand up, let them tremble, let them together be put to shame. What is he saying? He's saying the one who worships an idol, along with those who manufacture them, should all be ashamed of themselves. He moves ahead.
The man shapes iron into a cutting tool and does his work over the coals, fashioning it with hammers and working it with his strong arm. He also gets hungry, and his strength fails. He drinks no water and becomes weary. We see here a craftsman working with the hot coals and with metal. This blacksmith, shall we call him, fashions his god. And yet the very one who is fashioning the god who is to help him grows weary and thirsty. And Isaiah says, isn't that rather silly?
That one is growing weary and tired, making his god who is in turn supposed to help him. He says in verse 13, another shapes wood. So here we have the carpenter. He extends a measuring line. He outlines it with red chalk. He works it with planes and outlines it with a compass and makes it like the form of a man, like the beauty of a man, so that it may sit in a house. Surely, he cuts cedars for himself and takes a cypress or an oak and raises it for himself among the trees of the forest.
He plants a fir and the rain makes it grow. And then it becomes something for a man to burn. So he takes one of them and warms himself. He also makes a fire to bake bread. He also makes a god and worships it. He makes it a graven image and falls down before it. Half of it he burns in the fire. Over this half he eats meat as he roasts a roast and is satisfied. He also warms himself and says, aha, I'm warm. I've seen the fire. But the rest of it he makes into a god, his graven image.
Again he pokes fun at a person who plants a tree and then goes down and cuts the tree down. He takes half of the tree and goes over and builds a fire in his fireplace. And he warms himself with that fire and cooks his food. And he's filled and happy. And then he takes the other half of the same tree and out of that he fashions his god and puts it in the corner of his house. And he falls down and worships it. He says in verse 17, he also prays to it and says, deliver me for thou art my god.
And then he goes on to say, they do not know, nor do they understand, for he has smeared over their eyes so that they cannot see and their hearts so they cannot comprehend. And no one recalls nor is their knowledge or understanding to say, I've burned half in the fire and have baked bread over its coals. I roast meat and eat it. Then I make the rest of it into an abomination. I fall down before a block of wood. He feeds on ashes.
A deceived heart has turned him aside, and he cannot deliver himself nor say, is there not a lie in my right hand? He shows here the utter deceit that has captured the heart of the one who worships an idol. He should be able to recognize that with part of that piece of wood he has helped himself by fashioning a fire and making his food. And at that same little piece of wood he is worshiping, but his heart is deceived in that blindness.
And he's unable to deliver himself and to see that he is lying to himself in thinking that that idol will help him. Because you see that idol is his god. And though he has sincere faith in the idol, that faith will not cause the idol to help him. His faith is only as good as the object of his faith. What is the object of your faith? My friend, that is an important question because tonight hell is filled with people who had faith. The problem is that they had faith other than in Jesus Christ.
Now you have perhaps trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior. Your faith for the eternal salvation of your soul rests upon him. Then let me ask you this question regarding your walk with God. Upon what is your faith resting tonight? It is faith that rests upon God and his promises, which does not fail and which gets results. If your faith rests upon how fervently or how loudly or how often you pray, then your faith is misplaced.
If your faith that God is going to work on your behalf rests upon how good you've been, how obedient you are, how much you've given, then your faith rests upon a wrong object. If your faith rests upon what a friend says he has experienced or upon what some preacher says to you is right or wrong, rather than upon what God says in his word and what God promises and what God commands, then your faith has an invalid object. It will not achieve what it might.
Rather I exhort you, like Abraham, whatever your circumstances may be, to place your faith in God. Let it rest in him and his word. We have some tremendous examples of this in the Word of God. Perhaps one of the most exhilarating is found back in 1 Kings 18, where we find recorded for us a spiritual battle between Elijah, the prophet of God, and the several hundred priests of Baal. Elijah challenged them. Now, make no mistake about it, these prophets of Baal had faith.
You would not go through what they did unless you had faith. And many of the people in Israel had faith in Baal. But Elijah and 7,000 plus others rested their faith in God. There's a confrontation. It's on the top of Mount Carmel. An altar is prepared. An oxen is slain and put upon it. And Elijah says to the prophets of Baal, call upon your God and let him answer from heaven with fire. And so with sincere faith, they called out that Baal would bring fire upon that sacrifice.
And they prayed that way for three hours from nine o'clock in the morning until twelve o'clock noon. And then Elijah had a word to say to them. He says, hey, you guys better call out louder. He's your God, isn't he? Apparently then he is either busy right now or he has gone on a little trip. Maybe he is occupied with something. It could be he's asleep and he needs to be awakened. You better call a little louder.
And so with sincerity and with faith, those prophets of Baal began to scream and they jumped about on their altar and they cut themselves that their blood might flow for three hours and nothing happened. And so Elijah said to the people who were watching, come over here. And they came over there and he built an altar with twelve stones, one for each of the twelve tribes of Israel. The other oxen were slain, cut in pieces, put on the altar. Elijah said dig a trench around it.
So they dug a trench. Then he said to his servants, put water on it. So they put water on it. He said do it again. They did it again. Do it a third time. They did it a third time. They soaked it. They soaked the wood. They soaked the altar. They soaked the meat that was there. And then Elijah prayed. He said, O Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, today let it be known that thou art God in Israel and that I am thy servant and that I have done all these things at thy word.
Answer me, O Lord. Answer me that this people may know that thou, O Lord, art God and that thou hast turned their heart back again. And so he prayed, and his faith was in God and in God's word. And God answered from heaven, and fire fell out of heaven that licked up not only the sacrifice but the whole altar and the ground around it.
And the people were so moved by that powerful demonstration of God that they repented of their idolatry and turned to the Lord, and all the prophets of Baal were slain. What was the secret of that faith that got results? I'll tell you what it was. I don't know that it's Elijah had more faith than the prophets of Baal. It's just that his faith was in the living God. It makes all the difference. And it is not that Elijah was a spectacular man unlike us.
The Holy Spirit says to us in the book of James that he was a man of like passions as we are, and yet when he prayed, he fervently prayed. He believed God, and God answered. In what or in whom is your faith tonight? We could talk about the three Hebrew children as they are called. Facing to bow down before the great image Nebuchadnezzar had set up, facing the fiery furnace heated more hotly than it ever had been, so hot that as men approached to it, they were slain. What did they say?
Well, they said, Nebuchadnezzar, we're not going to bow. As the spiritual says, they wouldn't bow, they wouldn't bend, they wouldn't burn either. We're not going to bow, and our God is able to deliver us. And if he doesn't, we will still not bow to that image that you have set up. Were they lacking in faith? And they said, but if he doesn't? No, they realized that God was going to deliver them one way or the other.
He was going to take them out of the hands of Nebuchadnezzar by taking them home, or he was going to deliver them out of the fire. They said, our God's going to deliver us. They believed God, and God did. A miracle that is still spoken about to our day. We could go on and on with illustration after illustration of what a difference it is when faith rests upon God.
As we look at the challenge that is before us, the challenge of reaching the Twin Cities for Christ, which is kind of a glib little expression, isn't it? But it ought not to be. It's one that is packed with vision and with burden.
As we contemplate what God has called us to be a part of in Grace Church, and the planting of local churches around the Twin Cities that are working together cooperatively to see their area won, see the gospel preached, delivered to the homes, people invited to come in, people saved, people growing in Christ, as we begin to see what that vision is, there's only one way it can be accomplished, and that is as our faith rests upon God.
If our faith rests upon the preacher, upon the elders, upon ourselves, or some organization, or some millionaires, it's never going to be accomplished. But only as we say, Lord, this vision is from You and we trust You to show us how to do it, we'll get done. Likewise the vision that we have to see a facility here that will care for the people that God is bringing in, how is that going to be done?
Someone jested with me some time ago and said, well, you need to pray that two or three millionaires will join the church. Oh no, we don't need two or three millionaires. Our faith is not in millionaires. Our faith is in God. And God will provide the way He wants to and in the time that He wants to and will show us how it shall be accomplished. Our faith must rest upon Him, not upon ourselves, our wisdom, our ingenuity. Our faith rests upon God and His Word. Abraham did not stagger in unbelief.
He did not waver when he saw how critical were the circumstances before him. But rather he grew strong in faith and gave glory to God and God gave him His Son. His faith rested upon God, so shall ours, by the grace of God. A second secret that I see to faith that gets results is that Abraham's faith gripped the unknown. Turn back to Hebrews with me for a moment. That great section of Hebrews that deals with faith. Folks, my need is to learn to walk by faith and not by sight.
Maybe you share that with me. We are so used to walking according to our senses or our feelings or our reasoning, aren't we? If Abraham had been depending upon his ability to rationalize his situation, he would never have had a son. I want us to look here in Hebrews chapter 11 at what happened to Abraham. But first let's take a look at verse 1. Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. That verse tells us that faith puts us into contact with the unknown.
It is the unknowns that cause us to have anxiety, isn't it? And basically there are two kinds of unknowns. There is the unknown future, what's going to happen if, what's going to take place tomorrow, what if this or that occurs, the unknown future. And then there's the unknown invisible. We are aware that there are things about us that we cannot see that are taking place. And that's all unknown to us. How do we face the unknowns? By faith.
It says in the first place that faith is the assurance of things hoped for. That word assurance literally means to stand under something. The idea is the foundation of a building. It also came to be used as the proof of claim to a property. And so one translator says that faith is the title deed to tomorrow. How do I face the unknown future? What tomorrow may hold by faith. Like the songwriter said, and I've forgotten who it is now, I don't know who holds tomorrow, but I know who holds my hand.
We don't know about tomorrow. It's unknown to us, but by faith, by faith we have a title deed to it. God's already in tomorrow. He's eternal. He's there already. And so as we just take a hold of His hand, we can face tomorrow. What about the invisible things? Well, it says in the last part of that that faith is the conviction of things not seen. We're used to seeing things or feeling things or tasting things or hearing things using our five senses.
But here we learn that there is a sixth sense which the Christian is to exercise. That sense that relates us to the realm of the Spirit. It's called faith. Faith is the conviction of things not seen. That word conviction is a word that was used in some of the Greek writings of a legal document which proves an accusation against somebody. So what it's saying here is that faith is proof of things that are invisible to us.
In fact, the very idea is illustrated in Moses later here in the chapter where it says in verse 27, he endured as seeing him who is unseen. Isn't that a great thought? He saw him who is unseen. So faith gives us a grip on the unknown future upon the unknown invisible. Now what about Abraham? Well, in verse 8 it says, by faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive. Abraham had never seen that place.
God simply appeared to him and erred the Chaldees and said, Abraham, there's a land I'm going to give you. Come on. You know by faith he gripped the unknown. He didn't say, Lord, I don't know what, so I've never seen that land. It's invisible to me. I've never seen that. I don't know what's going to happen. Is that what he said? No. He said, I'm coming. So he went. He obeyed by faith and then it says in verse 9, by faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise.
In other words, he was a stranger. He was a pilgrim. He was a sojourner there. God had given him the land. He didn't see it as his. In fact, all of his life he never experienced that. It was unknown to him, but by faith he lived there. He gripped the unknown. It mentions Sarah in verse 11, but Abraham can be thought of along with her, of course, regarding the birth of their child. It was unknown that they could have a child at that age, and yet Sarah and Abraham gripped the unknown.
They said, God, if this is what you say, I don't know all about it. I don't understand it all, but we believe you. Verse 17, by faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac. Here was the one that God had promised him, through whom the seed was to come, and yet God says, offer him up. How was Abraham to do that? By faith he gripped the unknown. He had never seen anybody resurrected from the dead. That had never happened before, and yet Abraham got ahold of the unknown. He gripped into it.
He believed God, and God in a figure gave him his son back from the dead. You see, faith does not stop with what circumstances seem to be. Faith goes into the unknown and grips it. Right now we do not know how this building is going to be built. By faith there are many of us who are reaching into the unknown and gripping it, and saying, God, you have led us this far. God, you have raised up this ministry. Your promises are to provide where you lead, and we are gripping the unknown.
We do not have to have all of the answers, do we? If we had all of the answers, it would not be faith. That is why sometimes God leaves us a great big unknown out there. He says, how much can you trust me for? How big a handle on the unknown will you take a hold of? You see, Abraham's faith got results because he was unafraid to grip into the unknown. John Greenleaf Whittier said, faith steps into the seeming void and finds a rock beneath. That is what Abraham did.
He had never seen the land when he was there. It did not belong to him, but he lived there obediently because that is where God said he should. God said, were you going to have a son? It had never happened before. It was unknown to him, but God gave him the son because he stepped on that void and believed God and there was a rock beneath. God said, offer up your son. He went through all the motions even to the point of having the knife ready to slay his son.
Obedience, in faith, it was all unknown, but he gripped the unknown and God answered. God provided. And then a very final and brief thought, turn over with me to James chapter 2 and we see a third secret regarding Abraham's faith. It is that his faith was accompanied by works. And that is James' emphasis, you will recall. James says in verse 21, was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar?
You see that faith was working with his works and as a result of the works faith was perfected and the scripture was fulfilled which says that Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness and he was called the friend of God. You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone. In other words, it is not enough for a man to say, well I have faith, I know God is going to answer. There need to be works on the basis of that faith. Faith must be accompanied by works.
Abraham's was, God answered him and so must ours be. You see faith is not something that is idle, indolent, waiting, laying back. But faith is something that is aggressive, it's active, it's obedient, it steps out. Just as God said to those priests as they had the ark of the covenant on their shoulders facing the flooding Jordan, he said step into the water and then I will make the water part. And they did and the water parted and they went across on dry ground.
You see their faith that God would answer had to be accompanied by that step. The steps that we take show that we truly believe God. God does not do for us what we can and should do for ourselves and nor will he do his work until we have fully obeyed in our part. That is illustrated over and over. Naaman is an example isn't he? I heard about a preacher one time that told his congregation that that night he was going to preach on seven ducks in muddy water. And the people, what in the world?
Seven ducks in muddy water? What is he talking about? And so he turned to 2 Kings 5 and preached about Naaman. He ducked seven times in muddy water before he got healed. That's right, seven ducks in muddy water, that's what it was. Elijah or Elisha rather said to him, you will be healed by God but go out there into that river Jordan and duck yourself seven times in the water. Naaman didn't like that very well. But ultimately he did what he was supposed to do.
You see he believed the word of the prophet of God but it was accompanied by works that God required of him to evidence that he truly believed. And when he came up the seventh time he was whole, he was clean from his leprosy. Do we not see this again in the book of Judges in Gideon's example? The Midianites and the other enemies of God had gathered together in the battle to destroy the people of the Lord. Gideon got all of the folks together who could fight and then God began to separate them.
Those who should not be a part of it were sent home and finally there were 300 along with Gideon who could do the battle against these thousands of Midianites and others. Well what did God do? God said, look here's what you do Gideon, you get a sword or torch rather, your right hand.
He said, you fellas get a pitcher, a pot, a clay pot and put it around that sword and hide it and a trumpet rather, I didn't mean a sword, a trumpet in the right hand and a torch in the left hand with a clay pot over it and let's sneak up on the enemy.
And so they got around the hillsides, around the camp and then at the appropriate time they all broke the pots and they held up their torches that were lit and all of a sudden these Midianites, it was about 10 o'clock in the evening, they were all looking around and saw all this fire all of a sudden.
They were sure there were multiplied thousands of soldiers out there apparently and they began to run and then they began, the Israelites began to blow the trumpets and as they blew the trumpets, ram's horns and sounded out that word and shouted the sword of the Lord and of Gideon, all these Midianites began to fight each other and their army was completely destroyed. Now what was it that gave them that great result?
Well it was faith, they had to believe God in order to get around that Midianite camp my friend. They had to trust God but they also did something, they did what they were supposed to do. They took along the clay pots and the torches and the trumpets and they broke them and they blew the trumpets just like they were told to do and as they took their steps of obedience, God blessed and gave them the victory. You know it's going to be that way in our church too as we face the future.
God isn't going to send us a check in the mail for a million dollars and say please use this on your building signed God. He's not going to do that. You know why? Because God wants to provide in a way far better than that. God wants you and me to take steps of obedience. We look at a faith promise goal and we think of the missionaries that need to be supported.
How are we going to do that at the same time as we try to bring together our resources for the constructing of a building that seems to be essential for us? How is that all going to work? I don't know but if we just take the steps that God tells us to take, He will provide. That applies in a personal way too. Are you unemployed tonight? You can do your part in looking for a job. Trust God. You take the steps you should take. Trust God. In His time, He'll provide the job. Are you ill?
Asking God to heal you? Don't forget to go to the doctor. That's your part. You take the steps you can take. Trust God. Do you have a troubled marriage? You're asking God to do a miracle in your home to pull the family together? Great. But you take the steps you need to take. Go see that marriage counselor or one of the pastors. Are you in financial trouble? You're saying, God, provide for us or we're going down the tubes. What steps do you need to take, my friend, so that you can do your part?
I repeat, God does not do for us what we can and should do for ourselves, nor will He do His work until we have fully obeyed in ours. Hudson Taylor, and with this I close, Hudson Taylor was sailing on a vessel to China, his first trip there. Close to the shores, apparently, of some islands inhabited by cannibals, the ship was becalmed and there was no wind. And that large vessel began to drift with the current toward the shore where the eager savages were lined up, waiting their feast.
The captain came to Hudson Taylor and said, Sir, pray for wind. And Taylor said, Only if you will set the sails. The captain said, Well, I would look utterly ridiculous doing that. I will not do it. And Taylor said, I won't pray. Later, as the shore got closer, the captain decided to change his mind and he said, All right, I will set the sails. Go pray. And so Hudson Taylor went down to his cabin and began to pray.
It was not long before there was a knock at the door and the captain said, Taylor, are you still praying? He said, Yes, I am. He said, Well, you better stop because we have more wind now than we can manage. It takes some longer to get the point than others. Let me ask you a question. You are praying. You are saying, God, my faith rests in you. You are reaching out and gripping the unknown. You don't have all the answers.
But you know what God has said in His Word and you are reaching out there into that darkness taking a hold of what God has promised. Have you got your sails set? Heavenly Father, I pray that we may truly expect great things from you. I pray that our faith will not only be strong, but that it will be properly positioned, resting not upon what others can do or what we ourselves can do, but resting solely upon what you can do, what you are able to do.
And then I pray that you will teach us to lay aside our reasoning in the proper way, to lay aside what we feel, and to be willing to reach into the unknown and to take a handle there on the promises of God. I pray that along with our faith there will be works indicating that we are obeying, taking the steps you have called us to take. Now, Father, that may need to be applied in many, many ways in different homes and lives, as well as in our church.
So take this message and use it for your glory in our lives. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.